A TEENAGER has been locked up for killing a young soldier by punching him to the floor in a nightclub.

Serving Scots Guardsman Andrew Gibson was fatally injured after being felled by a single blow.

Mr Gibson, from Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, was attacked by an underage drinker during a night out in Darlington while on leave from the Army. The 19-year-old, who was based at Catterick Garrison, had been due to return home for Christmas.

Instead, Mr Gibson died from head injuries in a Teesside hospital last December. He had been due to be posted to Afghanistan in January.

Yesterday his attacker, 17-year-old John Flannigan, was locked up for two-and-a-half years at Teesside Crown Court. Flannigan, of Geneva Road, Darlington, had admitted manslaughter.

After the case, Mr Gibson’s mother and father, Linda and Freddy Gibson, said their son had been “robbed of his future, his hopes and his dreams”.

They said: “We are very disappointed with the sentence handed down today and feel it is not enough. We have been handed a life sentence of pain, grief and ‘what ifs’.

“The person who killed Andrew will have to live with what he has done for the rest of his life. But he may also be free to live his life by the time he is the same age as Andrew was when he died.

“Andrew didn’t deserve to die. We have lost a truly wonderful son and the Army has lost a committed soldier. We will never forget him.”

The court heard that Mr Gibson and his friends were in Darlington’s Escapade nightclub when trouble erupted. The soldier was knocked to the floor by a single punch.

He was hit as “payback” for punching the teenager minutes before, the court heard.

The court was shown CCTV footage of Flannigan lashing out with his fist and Mr Gibson falling to the ground. He was rushed to Darlington Memorial Hospital and later transferred to James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, where he died.

Defence barrister Nicholas de la Poer said the defendant believed Mr Gibson had been responsible for assaulting him earlier.

Mr De La Poer said: “He believed he had been the victim of an unprovoked assault.”

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox QC, said Flannigan was of previous good character and accepted that he was a hard-working lad and was remorseful.

After the case, Det Supt Neil Malkin, the senior investigating officer, said: “It is an enduring tragedy that a single, thoughtless act cost him his life.”